Puerto Vallarta and Riviera Nayarit
Engaged on the beach at sunset, and the ring was gone before dinner
From the Malecón and the Los Muertos Pier to the panga beaches south of town and the surf towns of Sayulita and San Pancho.
An engagement ring that vanished after a proposal on a Banderas Bay beach is worth a search when the two of you can walk back to the patch of sand where you stood. The rest depends on where you went afterward, straight up to dinner or into the sea first. A ring bought before it was sized may have sat loose from the start.
Ring Seekers is a lost ring and jewelry recovery service that connects people who lost a ring, wedding band, watch, keys or phone in Puerto Vallarta and Riviera Nayarit with a metal detectorist who can search there.
Tell us what happened and where. We find a detectorist who can reach the beach, brief them with your map and photos, and tell you honestly if the odds are poor.
Puerto Vallarta draws many couples, some of them to propose, and weddings are held on the seashore at Nuevo Vallarta as well.
Mark the spot before the light goes
Open your phone's map where you knelt or stood for the proposal and save that spot, then save the place you sat afterward as a second pin. Sweep the sand by eye with a flashlight, and ask everyone with you to keep off that patch. If a friend or a photographer was hiding with a camera, their pictures show where you were standing.
Puerto Vallarta, Mismaloya and Yelapa are in the state of Jalisco. Nuevo Vallarta, Bucerías, La Cruz de Huanacaxtle and Punta de Mita are in Nayarit, and so are the surf towns of Sayulita and, just north of it, San Pancho.
Places we cover in Puerto Vallarta and Riviera Nayarit
- Puerto Vallarta
- The Malecón and the beach below it
- Olas Altas
- The Romantic Zone (Zona Romántica)
- Playa Los Muertos and the Los Muertos Pier
- Playa Amapas
- Conchas Chinas
- Playa Camarones
- Playa Las Glorias
- Playa de Oro
- Mismaloya
- Los Arcos de Mismaloya
- Boca de Tomatlán
- Playa Las Animas
- Quimixto
- Yelapa
- Nuevo Vallarta
- Flamingos
- Bucerías
- La Cruz de Huanacaxtle and La Cruz Beach
- Punta de Mita
- The Islas Marietas and Playa del Amor
- Sayulita
- Sayulita's Playa de los Muertos
- San Pancho (San Francisco)
- Playa Clavellinas
Banderas Bay beaches, Yelapa and the surf towns
City beaches, fishing villages and coves reached by panga, the resort shore of Nuevo Vallarta and two surf towns.
The Malecón, Olas Altas and the Cuale River
The Malecón is the promenade along the downtown shore, set with sculptures, and it now carries on over a bridge across the Cuale River as far as Olas Altas Beach. The beach below it is small, rocky and not suitable for swimming, but people come to it to watch the sunset.
Playa Los Muertos, the pier and Amapas
Los Muertos, in the Romantic Zone south of the Cuale River, is a wide, long beach, busy with local families and vendors. Its pier, with a sail over the sea, is where pangas and water taxis board for the beaches south of town. At the southern end stands the Boy on the Seahorse sculpture, and near it steps climb El Púlpito to Playa Amapas, a small cove between rock formations with a rocky shore. A seafront path leads on from Amapas to Conchas Chinas.
Camarones, Las Glorias and Playa de Oro
Playa Camarones has soft golden sand and gentle to moderate waves, and it fills with Puerto Vallarta families at weekends. You can walk it from Playa Las Glorias to the Los Milenios sculpture where the Malecón begins. Playa de Oro, in the North Hotel Zone, lies between the Maritime Terminal and the mouth of the Pitillal River.
Mismaloya, Los Arcos, Boca de Tomatlán and Las Animas
Mismaloya is a fishing village south of the city, its beach of golden gravel sand lined with palapa restaurants. Just offshore, Los Arcos are five rocky islands where people snorkel, dive and kayak, reached by boat from Mismaloya or the Los Muertos pier. Boca de Tomatlán sits on a small bay, and pangas and water taxis leave its shore for Las Animas, Quimixto and Yelapa. Las Animas has soft amber sand, gentle waves and a pier where day tours stop.
Yelapa
Yelapa is a fishing village in the foothills of the Sierra Madre, reached only by boat, with a stream running through it. Its beach has emerald green water and gentle waves. People swim, snorkel and kayak there, then sit under palapas at the beachfront restaurants.
Nuevo Vallarta, Flamingos, Bucerías and La Cruz
Nuevo Vallarta lies where the Ameca River meets the Pacific, and its beaches are golden. Flamingos, close by, has a beach of fine golden sand. Bucerías is a town of cobblestone streets and fine sandy beaches with gentle waves, a few meters from its main plaza. La Cruz de Huanacaxtle is a fishing village with a modern marina.
Punta de Mita, the Marietas, Sayulita and San Pancho
Punta de Mita is a peninsula of white sand at the northern end of Banderas Bay. Tours leave from Corral del Risco for the Islas Marietas, where people snorkel off Playa La Nopalera and swim in wearing life jackets to Playa del Amor, the hidden beach. Sayulita is a small surf town of cobblestone streets and a main square; besides the main beach, people surf at Playa de los Muertos and walk along the sand to Playa Norte. San Pancho, the name most people use for San Francisco, has a wide beach with jungle behind it, and a jungle trail leads to Playa Clavellinas.
What happens once you write to us
Who you talk to
The person who reads your first WhatsApp message stays with your case to the end, and every update comes back to you in that chat.
The ring, described closely
The detectorist gets a description of the ring itself, its metal and its setting, next to your pins, so they know what they are looking for as well as where.
Hard to place
When a loss could be anywhere along an evening walk between beaches, we tell you plainly that the odds are poor, and why.
Costs, in the same chat
We explain the costs before any search is booked, in the same WhatsApp chat as everything else.
River mouths, rocky edges and surf around the bay
The shore changes a good deal between downtown Puerto Vallarta and the Nayarit surf towns.
Where rivers meet the sea
The walk from the Malecón to Los Muertos crosses the Cuale River, the Pitillal River reaches the sea at one end of Playa de Oro, the small Mismaloya River comes out beside its beach, and the Ameca River meets the Pacific at Nuevo Vallarta. A stream runs through Yelapa too. If you were near a river, say which side of it you were on.
Gentle water in the bay, surf up the coast
Waves are usually gentle at Playa de Oro and gentle to moderate at Camarones and Boca de Tomatlán, and Bucerías has tranquil surf. Surfers are out in the mornings at San Pancho and at sunset in Sayulita. A ring or phone that went over the side of a panga out in the bay is a long shot, and you would hear that from us first.
Questions about Puerto Vallarta and Riviera Nayarit
We got engaged on the sand beside the Los Muertos Pier and only noticed the ring was missing at the restaurant. Where do we begin?
Begin with the pier, the easiest fixed point on that beach, and say which side of it you were on and roughly where along the sand. If you walked on toward the south end, where the Boy on the Seahorse sculpture stands, or back toward the Malecón over the bridge across the Cuale River, give us that route too.
An earring went missing while we sat on the beach below the Malecón at sunset.
That narrow, rocky beach runs below the promenade from where the boardwalk begins to the Rotunda of the Sea sculptures. Say whether you were on the sand or up on the boardwalk, which part of that stretch you were on, and send a photo of the matching earring.
My phone slipped into the water as we climbed into a panga at Boca de Tomatlán.
Boca de Tomatlán is a fishing village on a small bay, and pangas and water taxis leave from there for Las Animas, Quimixto and Yelapa. Tell us where along the shore you boarded, how deep the water was around your legs, and what time it was.
Yelapa is reached only by boat. Can a bracelet lost while swimming there still be looked for?
Yes. If you sat under a palapa at one of the beachfront restaurants, its name is a good start. Then say whether you were swimming, snorkeling or kayaking, and mark where your boat came in. All of it can be sent from home after you leave.
Our wedding was on the shore at Nuevo Vallarta. Does it matter which stretch of sand the ceremony used?
Very much. Nuevo Vallarta has a great many hotels and resorts, and weddings there can be held along the seashore, so which resort's stretch of beach you were on matters more than anything else. Then say when the band came off, during the vows or in the photos on the sand, and whether anyone swam afterward.
Sayulita has a Playa de los Muertos too. How do you know which one I mean?
By the town, and by your pin. The Puerto Vallarta beach is in the city, past the Cuale River from the Malecón, with the pier on it. The Sayulita one is in the surf town on the Riviera Nayarit side, where beginners take surf lessons. If a watch or ring went there, tell us which way you walked to it from the main square.
A necklace came off while I was snorkeling among the rocks at Playa Clavellinas, near San Pancho.
Clavellinas is a peaceful bay reached on foot by a jungle trail, with rocks where people swim and snorkel. Say which of the rocks you swam along, how deep the water was there, and where you left your things on the beach. Describe the chain and any pendant on it.
My watch went missing on the beach at La Cruz de Huanacaxtle, but I am not sure which part.
La Cruz Beach runs for three miles and has five named sections: El Tizate, Cruz de Huanacaxtle, La Manzanilla, Piedra Blanca and Arena Blanca. If you know the section, start there. If not, the marina, or the pier where fishermen bring their pangas in, can help you find your place on a map.
Puerto Vallarta and Riviera Nayarit
Name the beach and drop a pin to begin
Photos and the rest of the evening can follow.
A WhatsApp message naming Los Muertos, Sayulita or wherever it happened, and saying what went missing, gets things started. Add a map pin on the spot where you last had it.